10/26/15
English 11 PD 6
Thematic Understanding of Ceremony In the book Ceremony, the thematic understanding that resonates with me the most is the one about not knowing where you fit in. In the story, the theme of Tayo being lost due to not knowing where he belonged devolved. Many of the Native Americans he knew, such as Emu, discriminated against him due to the fact that he was a “half breed.” The general population treated him differently because of the stigma and racism that was associated with Native Americans in the time period of the 1940-1950s. I as well can feel like I don’t belong sometimes. High school is a big place with many small groups and you can sometimes feel unwanted by many. I also have the cultural identity problem in that I am a first generation from Israel and it’s hard to really put me into either America or Israel because I’m a mix of the two cultures. The reaction from ourselves is understandable. As a people, we strive to fit in somewhere, it is only natural. But the fact that there will always be a part of me that is different from others helps me understand that it is ok for me to b different and to accept myself. But the truth is that there is so much hate to people that don’t fit to a particular group and this shows that in the world we live in today there is still a fear and a hate for anything that is different. As a society we have definitely improved over time, but I feel like there will always be a negative attitude towards change.